In 'Arabian Night,' the Elevator's Acting Odd. So Are the Tenants.

Arabian Night

For about two minutes it looks as if Roland Schimmelpfennig's "Arabian Night" is about a minor apartment-building crisis (no water above the seventh floor and a balky elevator). But when the building super begins to investigate, things turn strange fast.

For instance, the play's five characters rarely speak to one another. They talk to themselves instead, usually just describing the action and their thoughts. At one point Peter Karpati (Brandon Miller), a peeping-Tom neighbor, says: "What am I doing here? I'm standing in a strange apartment beside a sleeping woman who's got practically no clothes on."

The sleeping woman is Franziska Dehke (Jicky Schnee), a pale, dazed and confused blonde. She has an energetic roommate, Fatima Mansur (Roxanna Hope), whose devoted boyfriend, Kalil (Piter Marek), comes over every night after Franziska has conked out on the sofa. On this particular night Hans Lomeier (Stelio Savante), the super, stops by too, and gets a kiss.

Then, little by little, everything becomes clear, explaining the play's title in an unexpectedly literal way. There is a reason Franziska sleeps so much, has memory problems and makes Turkish coffee every morning. There is a reason Fatima, who will soon be chasing Kalil with a knife, carries so many keys.

Hans takes a quick trip to the desert. Peter has an unfortunate experience with a brandy bottle. And we meet, secondhand, a European couple who are truly sorry they ever decided to vacation in Istanbul.

This is a one-act German play, cleverly translated by David Tushingham, and described in promotional materials as "an erotic urban fantasy." Really, it's not that erotic (although Ms. Schnee's lingerie is awfully sheer, and Kalil does appear, at one point, to make love to a slinky dress). It's just a highly entertaining piece of silliness with an exotic undercurrent.